The holiday shopping season is no longer just a sprint — it’s a marathon in an increasingly complex retail world. Global e-commerce sales are projected to hit $6.86 trillion in 2025, an 8.37% jump from last year (SellersCommerce, 2025). Trends like Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) are now mainstream, with 91.5 million Americans expected to use BNPL this year (Capital One Shopping, 2025).

The retailers who thrive aren’t simply discounting products — they’re modernizing customer experience, personalizing marketing, scaling operations, and staying compliant. This playbook breaks down the essential strategies to not just survive the season, but capture outsized growth.

Table of Contents

• Modernize the Customer Experience

• Optimize Checkout to Reduce Friction

• Use Data-Driven Marketing to Stand Out

• Bulletproof Your Operations

• Automate Sales Tax Compliance

• FAQs: Holiday E-Commerce 2025

Modernize the Customer Experience

Holiday shoppers bounce between channels: Instagram ads, mobile browsing, in-store visits, and back online again. 73% of consumers now shop across multiple channels (Firework, 2025). To capture them, every interaction needs to feel like one continuous journey.

• Consistency matters: Branding, pricing, and service must be uniform across your website, app, and store. A disjointed experience can cost you the sale.

• Personalization is now expected: McKinsey reports 71% of consumers expect personalized interactions, and 76% are frustrated when it doesn’t happen.

• Unboxing is part of the journey: Branded packaging and thoughtful inserts can trigger social shares and repeat business.

Kensium Case Study: District Camera, a photography retailer, integrated its Shopify site, ERP, and POS system with Kensium. The result? Customers could move seamlessly between online and in-store without friction, boosting loyalty and repeat sales.

Optimize Checkout to Reduce Friction

Nothing kills a sale faster than a clunky checkout. The numbers are clear: stores adopting contactless payments cut checkout times by 20% and raised average ticket size by 12% (CoinLaw, 2025).

Best Practices

• Enable Tap-to-Pay & Mobile POS: Bust in-store lines with contactless checkouts anywhere in the store.

• Diversify payment options: BNPL adoption has skyrocketed — 91.5 million U.S. consumers will use it in 2025. Digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay are also must-haves.

• Simplify the online flow: Offer guest checkout, use address auto-complete, and clearly show shipping costs.

Kensium Case Study: For ParkingZone, Kensium re-engineered the checkout UX for tax-exempt buyers. Manual follow-ups disappeared, customer experience improved, and conversions rose.

Use Data-Driven Marketing to Stand Out

Holiday inboxes are flooded. The winners use data, segmentation, and urgency instead of generic blasts.

• Know what’s hot: Fashion, food, and DIY/home improvement are leading e-commerce growth categories, while household and beauty are flatter (Dash, 2025).

• Segment and reward loyalty: Loyal customers can be worth 22x more than one-time buyers. Reward them with early access and insider perks.

• Use urgency smartly: Tie promotions to real deadlines like shipping cutoffs. FOMO only works if it feels authentic.

• Leverage UGC & social proof: Encourage reviews and shoppable posts on Instagram or TikTok.

Kensium Example: SLC Activewear achieved a 100% website health score and lightning-fast page loads after Kensium optimization — just in time for holiday traffic surges. Their team said, “I could cry!” at the improvement.

Bulletproof Your Operations

Behind the scenes, the holiday season puts immense pressure on websites, warehouses, and support teams.

• Website performance: Amazon estimated every 100ms delay costs 1% in sales. Even small retailers can’t afford lag.

• Fraud prevention: Fraud attempts spike between November and January. Experts warn January fraud rates run 78% higher than average months (PaymentsJournal, 2025).

• Customer support: Staff up, extend hours, and use chatbots/FAQ portals to absorb volume. Smooth returns can turn a problem into a loyalty driver.

Kensium Example: Priester’s Pecans scaled effortlessly after partnering with Kensium to modernize their systems — ensuring they could handle peak loads without sacrificing speed or fulfillment.

Automate Sales Tax Compliance

Sales tax complexity is magnified during high-volume months. Each state sets its own nexus thresholds and deadlines, making manual tracking risky.

• Real-time accuracy: Automated solutions calculate precise sales tax at checkout.

• Nexus monitoring: Alerts when your sales cross state thresholds.

• Filing automation: Automatically prepare and even remit returns.

• Channel integration: Consolidates Shopify, marketplaces, and ERP data.

This isn’t just legal hygiene — it’s a growth enabler. Confident compliance means you can expand into new states and marketplaces without fear of audits derailing momentum.

Kensium + Avalara Note: Many of our ERP + commerce integration projects (like Door County Candle’s 600% revenue growth) pair with Avalara’s automated tax platform. Avalara’s real-time tax engine plugs directly into e-commerce platforms and ERPs, giving merchants a single source of truth for sales, inventory, and compliance. This partnership removes the guesswork from tax and frees merchants to focus on growth, not paperwork.

FAQs: Holiday E-Commerce 2025

Q1. When should I start preparing?
By August or September. Many shoppers begin holiday deal-hunting in October.

Q2. What trends matter most this year?
BNPL, mobile shopping, social commerce, personalization, and fast/free shipping.

Q3. How do I reduce cart abandonment?
Streamline checkout, show all costs early, offer guest checkout, and send cart recovery emails within hours.

Q4. Do I need to collect sales tax in every state?
No. Only in states where you have physical or economic nexus. Automation tools track this automatically.

Q5. Why is omnichannel retail so important?
Omnichannel shoppers spend more and stay more loyal. Features like Buy Online, Pick Up In Store are now baseline expectations.

Final Word

Holiday success in 2025 isn’t just about getting traffic — it’s about delighting customers, enabling frictionless checkout, staying agile with data-driven campaigns, scaling operations, and keeping compliance effortless.

Retailers who integrate these strategies will capture both short-term holiday spikes and long-term growth.

Kensium helps merchants integrate e-commerce platforms with ERPs like Acumatica, Sage, and NetSuite — delivering omnichannel readiness, tax automation, and scalable operations. Ready to see how? Talk to our team.